Skyscraper Rivals

07/30/2001 |

A look back at some memorable buildings and the beginnings of facilities management

In every city, on every street, there are forgotten buildings - sources of
architectural and facilities management history - which go unrecognized. Historian
and Author Daniel Abramson, Medford, MA, has revealed some of these overlooked
treasures. In his new book, Skyscraper Rivals, Abramson centers on four office
buildings built in downtown New York City from 1928 to 1931. These buildings
hold many previously untold stories, including the evolution of professional
facilities management.

While horse-drawn carts still traversed New York's financial district, a monumental
construction boom transformed lower Manhattan's landscape. Boxy low-rises gave
way to the now familiar setback slender office towers. Abramson's research focuses
on the striking 66-story AIG building, then known as the Cities Services building,
as well as sister facilities: 40 Wall St., City Bank Farmers Trust Building,
and One Wall St.

"My aim was to uncover what the client had in mind. Also I wanted the workers'
perspective and how people perceived these buildings," says Abramson. The
overall design of these buildings, as with most facilities in financial districts,
complemented and accommodated the buildings' function to generate the maximum
amount of revenue in the shortest possible time.

To accomplish this all-important mission required careful collaboration among
building owners, architects, contractors, artisans, consultants, and fledging
facilities management associations. "What I learned was the architects
had to work very carefully with building owners and the owners' committees.
The process of building these large skyscrapers was so complicated at this time
in history that no one person or architectural firm had the technical expertise
to manage all the engineering and space planning aspects," says Abramson.
Moreover, because building owners had so much at stake financially, they insisted
upon having as much technical expertise as possible, especially from rental
agents, space planners, and engineers.

More people than ever were having an input in the creation of facilities. Chicago's
National Association of Building Owners and Managers organized a facilities
planning service, so that facilities managers would have a greater role in building
design. Before this period, there was limited interaction between facilities
managers, architects, and engineers during the initial design process. "Because
groups, such as the building managers, began to see themselves as professional,
they wanted to see some parity between themselves and the architects. They wanted
to be more proactive," says Abramson. Much of the history of lower Manhattan's
Art Deco towers was gleaned from early facilities management professional journals.

Discovering what the work environment was like in these buildings during those
turbulent times was especially challenging. "There were no histories of
the workers of these buildings. They didn't have a voice," explains Abramson.
In addition to including social history research from the early 20th century,
Abramson mined vintage newspaper and magazine articles. From the army of maintenance
men, to the scrubwomen, to the junior executives, and to the comely female elevator
attendants, Skyscraper Rivals offers glimpses of these workers' lives.

Designed as vertical cities, the towers sported various tenant-pleasing amenities,
such as restaurants, health clinics, beauty shops, drugstores, and even a gentlemen's
gymnasium. Crowded secretarial pools surrounded by generous private offices,
spectacular lobbies designed to attract crowds, grand conference rooms designed
to impress clients - each space tells a story of the citizens who peopled these
office-cities. "To me the lives of those people are as much a part of those
buildings as the architects and builders," says Abramson.

As a native New Yorker, Abramson approached this project with a long-time affinity
for exploring the rich history of Wall Street. Adds Abramson, "My grandfather
worked on John St. [in the financial district] for an insurance company in the
1930s, so I felt a personal connection to the subject." Illustrated with
photographs, engravings, and nostalgic picture postcards, Skyscraper Rivals
details the unique nature of each office building, bringing the past to life.

Though now dwarfed by young upstarts, such as the World Trade Center, these
office buildings have lost little of their original beauty and interest. Much
of their original interior design elements remain in the buildings' public areas.
Skyscraper Rivals recovers these pieces of architectural and facilities management
history, showing the commercial buildings community its long-forgotten roots.